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New York Times has an editorial asking for an end to mass incarceration:
For more than a decade, researchers across multiple disciplines have been issuing reports on the widespread societal and economic damage caused by America's now-40-year experiment in locking up vast numbers of its citizens.
Several recent reports provide some of the most comprehensive and compelling proof yet that the United States "has gone past the point where the numbers of people in prison can be justified by social benefits," and that mass incarceration itself is "a source of injustice.". That is the central conclusion of a two-year, 444-page study prepared by the research arm of the National Academy of Sciences at the request of the Justice Department and others
The report highlights many well-known statistics: Since the early 1970s, the nation's prison population has quadrupled to 2.2 million, making it the world's biggest. That is five to 10 times the incarceration rate in other democracies.
On closer inspection the numbers only get worse. More than half of state prisoners are serving time for nonviolent crimes, and one of every nine, or about 159,000 people, are serving life sentences -- nearly a third of them without the possibility of parole.All of this has come at an astounding economic cost, as tallied by a report from the Brookings Institution's Hamilton Project $80 billion a year in direct corrections expenses alone, and more than a quarter-trillion dollars when factoring in police, judicial and legal services.
The editorial argues, and makes a convincing case, that all of this seems to stem from the unwillingness of the politicians to appear "soft on crime". Which, by nature, I think is a stance no different from the "war on terror" and the "airport security theatre". If I'm right, I wonder just how much the US citizens are actually willing to pay for their everyday dose of "feeling secure"?
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Tuesday May 27 2014, @05:05AM
But when there's a lien, and if the object against which the lien is held is sold for more than what you owe, you're paid the difference.
So if you own $1M, but your life value is $6M, and you're sold to cover the debt -- assuming fair market value, you'll receive $5M from the sale (the 'profit' after your creditor is paid off).
[dodges stampede of folks attempting to get themselves sold to pay off their debts]
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Tuesday May 27 2014, @05:46AM
Strikes me as a stupid idea to get only $1M in debt if I'd end being sold anyway. Remember the saying of: "If you owe zillions to the bank, it's not you but the bank to have a problem"?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Tuesday May 27 2014, @06:09AM
I should have perhaps suffixed a Sarcasm Alert. :)
But yes, that saying is indeed quite true.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Tuesday May 27 2014, @06:44AM
Anyway. I don't mind/resent if others can and/or do have a light-hearted take on it).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Tuesday May 27 2014, @07:19AM
Not so lighthearted, considering my current options in life. :/
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.